Tried to clear today of as many tasks as possibly to give me a day off. The Organ Committee is meeting with Craig Cramer this evening, but that is my only scheduled event for the day. I know that meetings even at their best leave this introvert with his interior emotional terrain shaking. So given that ending of the day, I am going to attempt to putz around the house today and do as little as possible. This is not as easy as it sounds, at least not for me. I found my brain rattling on this morning at about the time I usually get up.
Nothing for it, but to get up, make coffee and read as usual.
No pics in yesterday’s post due to time constraints. 8:30 AM comes especially early on Monday morning after an active Sunday. In between classes yesterday I was on the phone with Craig Cramer discussing this evening’s meeting. The organ committee draws nearer to a decision. It was unfortunate that none of them (including the boss) came out to my Sunday evening recital. The acoustics at Harkerwyk are pretty good and much better than what most people in church experience in the US. I would like my organ committee to have what I think of as the “Eileen epiphany.”
When Eileen accompanied me to Charleston for a Hymn Society Convention which necessarily included a lot of hymn singing in good acoustics, her takeaway was profound. Singing in that kind of environment is an experience that is both rewarding and surprising. At the worship commission meeting last night I pointed out that the acoustics would improve with the installation of a new organ because the builder would stipulate at least some improvement. This would benefit our congregational singing.
Of course sitting exhausted in my living room on Tuesday morning it’s hard to hold back waves of realism (cynicism?) about what actually ends up happening in churches. I have some small sad doubts about how realistic my dreams are. But that’s more about me. Ultimately I’m trying to keep my own involvement appropriate. Which means the decisions, energy and direction must come from the community I serve. I’m not convinced the community has much more than inertia around prayed liturgy connection with the arts. But that could be the exhaustion talking. Yesterday I arrived at the choir room to look up some organ music to find this on the board.
I only hope that it was done by a choir member since it calls the singers “amateur.”
I managed to get up to speed on my cycle of providing bulletin information and Sunday Psalms yesterday. This means I submitted not only this Sunday’s stuff but a week from Sunday’s as well. This little jump in prep is my own contribution to attempting to help planners think a tiny bit a head concretely. It helps me a lot to get a seven day jump on final plans.
Being as busy as I have been has the unfortunate side effect of feeling like I should be doing something (what has my aging alzheimer’s brain forgotten this time?) even when I have some unstructured time. I think of it as the Wile E. Coyote effect.
Nevertheless, I plan to goof off today.